Jonathan Gannon. Photo Credit: azcentral.com
The thing that everyone knew would happen actually happened: the Arizona Cardinals have fired head coach Jonathan Gannon after a dismal 3-14 season that saw the team finish with the worst record in franchise modern history. With a combined 15-36 record over three years and never reaching the playoffs, Gannon’s dismissal was inevitable. The numbers don’t lie: a 3-15 record against NFC West opponents, including an 0-6 showing against the Seahawks, made his position untenable.
Let’s be clear: Gannon deserved to be fired. When your peak achievement is briefly holding first place in the division before losing four straight games to fall to third, that’s not progress. When injuries can’t fully explain away consecutive losing streaks of five and nine games, something is fundamentally broken. The Cardinals focused heavily on defense in the offseason, yet the team regressed spectacularly, suggesting issues far beyond personnel.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth Cardinals fans must face: firing Gannon changes nothing if the ownership remains the same. General manager Monti Ossenfort will lead the coaching search, but this is the same front office that orchestrated a supposed three-year rebuild that somehow left the team worse off than when it started. The same organization that has cycled through coaches and coordinators while consistently failing to build sustainable success.
Photo Credit: Arizona Cardinals
Sure, injuries devastated the roster; 42 players missing games, 25 on injured reserve including Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison Jr. That’s legitimate adversity. But championship organizations find ways to overcome adversity. The Cardinals simply collapsed.
So yes, there will be a new coach. There will be optimism. There will be promises of change and renewal. Cardinals fans will feel that familiar flutter of hope that maybe, just maybe, this time will be different.
But until there’s accountability at the ownership level, until the organizational culture fundamentally shifts, this is just another lap around the same depressing carousel. Gannon is gone, and rightfully so. What comes next? Probably more of the same, dressed up in different colors.
Michael Bidwell. Photo Credit: Arizona Republic
Over the last century the Cardinals have been one of the most flaccid organizations in all of professional sports, not just football. There has been one and only one tying bind during this entire history of failure: the last name “Bidwell”. The one position that can’t be replaced save extraordinary circumstances or a willingness to be replaced. As a result, while we may have a glimmer of hope for a little while, it’s hard to believe that this history of failure will truly reverse.